During surgery, an incision in the flesh is made. The incision edges begin to bleed. Before the remainder of the surgical procedure can be attempted the bleeding at the incision edges must be brought under control. The most well known and commonly used method of achieving hemostasis involves the use of pressure at the site of the incision. This pressure constricts the capillaries, minimizing the amount of bleeding along the incision edges. In neurological surgery the same method is used. An incision is made and metal or plastic clips are clamped along the scalp incision edge to achieve hemostasis while the remainder of the surgical procedure is performed. One type of clip currently in use is called the Raney clip. The Raney clip is a plastic spring clip with jaws on one side and a slot on the other. The applier has two prongs on one end of a scissor-like device. These prongs are inserted into the slot on the back side of the Raney clip. When the applier handle is squeezed the prongs at the other end force open the jaws of the clip. The open jaws of the Raney clip are then positioned on the edge of the scalp incision which has been elevated from the underlying skull. When the applier handle is relaxed, the Raney clip jaws clamp along the incision edge. The prongs then can be removed from the slot so that another Raney clip can be loaded.
For each incision, several Raney clips must be placed. However, only one clip can be applied at a time, making the placement process tedious and time consuming. Each clip must be properly oriented and then loaded onto the applier. In a surgical procedure of this type, time is of the essence; an unclipped incision edge continues to bleed, making the successive steps of the procedure more difficult. The clip dispenser which is the subject of this invention avoids the disadvantages of Raney-type appliers because this clip dispenser allows an entire row of clips to be advanced into position along the scalp incision without the need for reloading its applying means. This improved clip and dispenser eliminates the tedious and time consuming steps made necessary by having to reload a Raney clip after each placement.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an apparatus for dispensing hemostatic clips which is simple and easy to use, without need for reloading after each clip is placed.
It is therefore a further object of this invention to provide a magazine for rapidly dispensing a plurality of hemostatic clips along an incision edge.
It is another object of this invention to provide an apparatus which is both sterilizable and disposable.